WBS 5, Springfield 3 3/25

March 25th, 2012

Some notes from today’s 5-3 WBS win over Springfield:

– I thought the story of the game was Patrick Killeen stopping all 17 shots he faced in the third period. The first two periods were a goaltender’s nightmare — few shots but very good scoring chances. He bounced back from that to do his finest work in the AHL to date.

– The other story of the game would be the Penguins breaking a two-game goal drought. Jason Williams and Bryan Lerg played a huge role in that early in the game. Lerg collected the rebound of a Simon Despres point shot and fed it across the top of the crease to Williams for a goal in the first period and Williams redirected a Brian Strait shot from to Lerg alone on the doorstep in the second. The Penguins then authored a third-period comeback from 3-2 down when Ryan Craig made a cross-crease pass to set up Brian Gibbons for a slam dunk and Zach Sill stole a puck on the forecheck and centered to Alex Grant at the blue line for a slap shot goal past traffic provided by Paul Thompson and Steve MacIntyre.

– MacIntyre played a very effective game. He went to the net in the offensive zone and once he’s there, he’s nearly impossible to move. He didn’t have to do any fighting, as Springfield, even with 6-6 heavyweight Tim Spencer dressed, didn’t seem all that interested in exacting revenge for his actions in the last meeting between the teams.

– The lingering bad blood seemed to be between Geoff Walker and Greg Amadio. Walker called Amadio over to the red line for a chat during warm-ups, then they fought off the opening faceoff. That seemed to diffuse the situation.

– Given the state of the standings, the results of the games this weekend didn’t matter a whole lot for the Penguins, which makes it difficult to truly evaluate how they’re playing. One thing I will say is that I thought facing Springfield is a good test in the sense that they’re a poor man’s Hershey. They don’t dump the puck in much, preferring to carry it into the offensive zone. They have veteran skill players who make nifty passes. The Penguins failed that test early, then rebounded to handle the Falcons much better in the second half of the game.

– @GC: O’Reilly is not playing particularly well, no. It would be very, very rare for a team to sign a player on an AHL deal like Street or Lerg to an AHL contract at this juncture in the season. I’ve never heard of it happening before.

– @jbfrogg: I will definitely look up that elimination game stat as we get closer to the playoffs. If I don’t, remind me.

Penguins are scheduled to be off tomorrow and back to practice Tuesday, so look for the next update then.

In case anyone is interested the Anthracite Curling Club will be holding a learn to curl event on Tuesday night 27 March and again on 3 April at Coal Street Ice Rink at 7pm till 9pm. Teams are forming now for our summer curling league. For additional information see http://anthracitecurling.com/

BAE

In what at first seemed like, “didn’t we just see a lousy game and here we are back at the arena for another game”, and with Springfield scoring the first goal.. deja vu? While in the back of our minds, we’ve won before with this… and then the Pens got a goal. We felt fresh again! ANd we had a ball game. It wsa apparent that the guys who played “good” the previous two games, were playing “great”. They had their wheaties Sunday. Gritty in puck fights, good passing, and then we get home and see the big guys win. A pretty good Sunday, after all.
Except, between games, I bought gas.

poppy48

JB, 100% agree on your Killeen comments. He made some outstanding saves in the 3rd. He was the difference maker and, for my money, could have been first star for the game.

Waltwvu

Nailers update: Team has been sold and will remain in Wheeling.

Robby

Man Pitt pens are fun to watch. I’ve been a die hard baby pens fan since they came here but I gotta admit I would prefer to stay home and watch Pitt pens then pay to go see baby pens. This is like once and a lifetime hockey lol

http://citizensvoice joe

Still think the mental errors stem from fatigue. Just hope that they can right the ship over these last couple weeks.

http://highlandparkhockey.blogspot.com/ TonyAndrock

Despres and Strait recalled by Pittsburgh

http://blogs.citizensvoice.com penguinsgirl

Oh, man! I hope Lovejoy isn’t out long-term.

And I absolutely agree with Robby. The Pitt Pens remind me of the Chicago Bulls team that had Jordan, Pippen, and crew, as well as the Lakers with Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, Cooper, etc. I wasn’t really a basketball fan but when those guys were on their game, it was so cool to watch them. If Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Letang, etc. can stay healthy the NHL Playoffs could be amazing!!!

A winner of first-place honors in the blogging category of the 2012 Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors awards, Penguins Insider was created to give local hockey fans an interactive, in-depth way to follow the team they so passionately support. The blog's author, beat writer Jonathan Bombulie, has been covering the team since its inception in 1999. Contact him at jbombulie@aol.com

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